# AutoPCF: Efficient Product Carbon Footprint Accounting with Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.04241 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04241/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Aug 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models Encode Clinical Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.13138/) (2022)
- [GLM: General Language Model Pretraining with Autoregressive Blank Infilling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10360/) (2021)
- [BloombergGPT: A Large Language Model for Finance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17564/) (2023)
- [GLM-130B: An Open Bilingual Pre-trained Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02414/) (2022)
- [Error Analysis Prompting Enables Human-Like Translation Evaluation in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13809/) (2023)
- [Is GPT-4 a Good Data Analyst?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15038/) (2023)
- [Autonomous GIS: the next-generation AI-powered GIS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06453/) (2023)
- [ChatGPT: Applications, Opportunities, and Threats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09103/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [A Survey of Sustainability in Large Language Models: Applications, Economics, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04782/) (2024)
- [PCFBench: A Diagnostic Benchmark for Product Carbon Footprint Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27716/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The product carbon footprint (PCF) is crucial for decarbonizing the supply chain, as it measures the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions caused by all activities during the product's life cycle. However, PCF accounting often requires expert knowledge and significant time to construct life cycle models. In this study, we test and compare the emergent ability of five large language models (LLMs) in modeling the 'cradle-to-gate' life cycles of products and generating the inventory data of inputs and outputs, revealing their limitations as a generalized PCF knowledge database. By utilizing LLMs, we propose an automatic AI-driven PCF accounting framework, called AutoPCF, which also applies deep learning algorithms to automatically match calculation parameters, and ultimately calculate the PCF. The results of estimating the carbon footprint for three case products using the AutoPCF framework demonstrate its potential in achieving automatic modeling and estimation of PCF with a large reduction in modeling time from days to minutes.